Research:Anonymous editor acquisition/Volume and impact

This page documents quantitative research in the volume of anonymous editors on English Wikipedia.

Unique IPs editing

The number of revisions saved per month is plotted by the type of agent.

The monthly edit session hours are plotted by user type

The number of monthly edit sessions is plotted by the type of agent.

The mean number of hours per session is plotted by the type of agent.

The mean number of revisions per session is plotted by the type of agent.

Main namespace activity

Unique editors. The number of unique editors (by user_text) is plotted for two agent types (anon = IP editors, user = registered account) over time.

data table

year month anons users 1 2002 1 846 179 2 2002 2 1297 261 3 2002 3 1301 245 4 2002 4 1225 216 5 2002 5 1194 205 6 2002 6 1159 256 7 2002 7 1346 287 8 2002 8 1974 382 9 2002 9 2639 478 10 2002 10 2744 553 11 2002 11 2906 537 12 2002 12 3115 584 13 2003 1 3783 892 14 2003 2 2981 894 15 2003 3 3476 859 16 2003 4 3762 836 17 2003 5 4678 1131 18 2003 6 4998 1289 19 2003 7 6184 1662 20 2003 8 7171 1792 21 2003 9 7895 1832 22 2003 10 8408 2127 23 2003 11 8629 2268 24 2003 12 9679 2441 25 2004 1 10812 2855 26 2004 2 14622 3819 27 2004 3 19947 5000 28 2004 4 19458 5185 29 2004 5 20741 5680 30 2004 6 22244 5955 31 2004 7 27033 7057 32 2004 8 27312 7709 33 2004 9 34514 8808 34 2004 10 41571 10125 35 2004 11 51141 11618 36 2004 12 55204 12564 37 2005 1 59764 13143 38 2005 2 55688 13315 39 2005 3 68073 16204 40 2005 4 84867 18918 41 2005 5 95172 20666 42 2005 6 99485 22048 43 2005 7 123420 27278 44 2005 8 139681 30826 45 2005 9 147847 30055 46 2005 10 195068 35029 47 2005 11 209846 37040 48 2005 12 246033 53429 49 2006 1 269237 60558 50 2006 2 254134 67589 51 2006 3 294420 80962 52 2006 4 309672 83824 53 2006 5 353698 93007 54 2006 6 325163 95554 55 2006 7 330718 102532 56 2006 8 364406 116167 57 2006 9 392551 117084 58 2006 10 453260 125561 59 2006 11 484370 136733 60 2006 12 467665 139049 61 2007 1 521937 152841 62 2007 2 522122 156115 63 2007 3 587593 166786 64 2007 4 580644 163302 65 2007 5 583441 157434 66 2007 6 490714 137363 67 2007 7 465612 139333 68 2007 8 466858 138500 69 2007 9 515266 140561 70 2007 10 567971 149586 71 2007 11 529857 142469 72 2007 12 488696 130853 73 2008 1 546358 143924 74 2008 2 539645 143657 75 2008 3 577579 150839 76 2008 4 564249 148672 77 2008 5 560972 144963 78 2008 6 489359 129946 79 2008 7 465218 128503 80 2008 8 468386 128224 81 2008 9 521777 130752 82 2008 10 567766 138341 83 2008 11 517581 132717 84 2008 12 479973 129029 85 2009 1 541440 138752 86 2009 2 529409 134380 87 2009 3 559096 140920 88 2009 4 501052 133901 89 2009 5 499108 136814 90 2009 6 448920 130297 91 2009 7 424177 127757 92 2009 8 423714 127569 93 2009 9 450131 127735 94 2009 10 489478 133193 95 2009 11 474614 132618 96 2009 12 445566 126985 97 2010 1 493342 134999 98 2010 2 474142 130772 99 2010 3 504201 136700 100 2010 4 482889 131225 101 2010 5 482409 131343 102 2010 6 424694 119112 103 2010 7 410266 116362 104 2010 8 416148 117332 105 2010 9 432894 114825 106 2010 10 459869 118246 107 2010 11 443758 116147 108 2010 12 421323 111943 109 2011 1 473608 123933 110 2011 2 400635 124776 111 2011 3 395382 134702 112 2011 4 375495 127779 113 2011 5 381674 126780 114 2011 6 358992 121164 115 2011 7 349445 118365 116 2011 8 360907 120690 117 2011 9 354622 119771 118 2011 10 384521 120891 119 2011 11 379829 117540 120 2011 12 358109 112960 121 2012 1 378354 119845 122 2012 2 366673 116249 123 2012 3 373006 114207 124 2012 4 363345 112349 125 2012 5 365659 114365 126 2012 6 327139 107653 127 2012 7 325462 110068 128 2012 8 325390 110329 129 2012 9 322210 105873 130 2012 10 363654 111257 131 2012 11 354102 110854 132 2012 12 336997 106331 133 2013 1 365335 113771 134 2013 2 334921 107978

Revisions. The sum total revisions are plotted for two agent types (anon = IP editors, user = registered account) over time.

data table

year month anon user 1 2002 1 6582 7033 2 2002 2 34744 11842 3 2002 3 6252 13406 4 2002 4 4987 11410 5 2002 5 6523 10541 6 2002 6 7753 17557 7 2002 7 8908 19840 8 2002 8 13418 37382 9 2002 9 14882 57341 10 2002 10 16122 79889 11 2002 11 14767 37298 12 2002 12 16069 70989 13 2003 1 19052 55645 14 2003 2 13375 51102 15 2003 3 16450 55211 16 2003 4 17405 56673 17 2003 5 18212 73821 18 2003 6 18809 77259 19 2003 7 24081 85021 20 2003 8 30914 95437 21 2003 9 28823 86056 22 2003 10 29654 94137 23 2003 11 31083 130847 24 2003 12 33782 146604 25 2004 1 34719 140528 26 2004 2 51281 190625 27 2004 3 72768 273204 28 2004 4 67572 251235 29 2004 5 71903 261346 30 2004 6 116225 339558 31 2004 7 91111 397102 32 2004 8 92695 415525 33 2004 9 119360 406570 34 2004 10 134469 447909 35 2004 11 174049 575132 36 2004 12 184944 536989 37 2005 1 181220 436042 38 2005 2 175463 427592 39 2005 3 221243 563762 40 2005 4 301930 707551 41 2005 5 333840 730857 42 2005 6 366635 801560 43 2005 7 447675 952863 44 2005 8 486059 1010211 45 2005 9 477582 950145 46 2005 10 637511 1089737 47 2005 11 686073 1161247 48 2005 12 814495 1619254 49 2006 1 888323 1847550 50 2006 2 818141 1795400 51 2006 3 928449 2144413 52 2006 4 962075 2007965 53 2006 5 1131488 2294020 54 2006 6 1039264 2315509 55 2006 7 1048810 2457158 56 2006 8 1136734 2718024 57 2006 9 1177671 2478246 58 2006 10 1356396 2646149 59 2006 11 1426375 2701018 60 2006 12 1337316 2774374 61 2007 1 1506578 3016875 62 2007 2 1487806 2936861 63 2007 3 1658946 3158764 64 2007 4 1615933 3112278 65 2007 5 1625036 3080062 66 2007 6 1349696 2809410 67 2007 7 1318353 2876191 68 2007 8 1290206 2819663 69 2007 9 1381824 2786521 70 2007 10 1517163 2965697 71 2007 11 1378865 2793668 72 2007 12 1252918 2819557 73 2008 1 1425178 2885444 74 2008 2 1406256 2813322 75 2008 3 1500228 3286876 76 2008 4 1471049 2888746 77 2008 5 1452490 2908546 78 2008 6 1276511 2813279 79 2008 7 1248956 2859283 80 2008 8 1263954 2907032 81 2008 9 1358346 3050065 82 2008 10 1471438 3105049 83 2008 11 1311301 2792878 84 2008 12 1218611 2798503 85 2009 1 1375384 2948529 86 2009 2 1343122 2819580 87 2009 3 1430186 2956990 88 2009 4 1290662 2736693 89 2009 5 1296284 2986443 90 2009 6 1193472 2738490 91 2009 7 1136902 2665222 92 2009 8 1134699 2754510 93 2009 9 1174423 2802971 94 2009 10 1263653 2705464 95 2009 11 1212100 2692243 96 2009 12 1122390 3255307 97 2010 1 1261053 2681675 98 2010 2 1209966 2664554 99 2010 3 1296406 2818772 100 2010 4 1262881 2761881 101 2010 5 1237142 2833181 102 2010 6 1069870 2868806 103 2010 7 1076090 2566090 104 2010 8 1090406 2764606 105 2010 9 1107899 2839909 106 2010 10 1172684 2947512 107 2010 11 1104083 2790598 108 2010 12 1055231 2623904 109 2011 1 1200216 2859028 110 2011 2 1004973 2505141 111 2011 3 999807 2573958 112 2011 4 948664 2610759 113 2011 5 956222 2545010 114 2011 6 930435 2624105 115 2011 7 914425 2694038 116 2011 8 937978 2523124 117 2011 9 899383 2553156 118 2011 10 961145 2433413 119 2011 11 950371 2377974 120 2011 12 894670 2448356 121 2012 1 960778 2701747 122 2012 2 932722 2492479 123 2012 3 955241 2567452 124 2012 4 927534 2447083 125 2012 5 937883 2691577 126 2012 6 848042 2401049 127 2012 7 871331 2533698 128 2012 8 889048 2578225 129 2012 9 848759 2313936 130 2012 10 927398 2548884 131 2012 11 876837 2581585 132 2012 12 836142 2535035 133 2013 1 915532 2681223 134 2013 2 828706 3080439

Bytes added. The monthly sum total bytes added (by comparing rev_len) is plotted by agent type. (anon = IP editor, user = registered account)

data table

year month anon user 1 2002 1 0.012385 0.093651 2 2002 2 0.020683 0.049978 3 2002 3 0.005050 0.092637 4 2002 4 0.046084 0.057417 5 2002 5 0.018208 0.039760 6 2002 6 0.026074 0.071759 7 2002 7 0.007572 0.218202 8 2002 8 0.048021 0.411880 9 2002 9 0.027414 0.486984 10 2002 10 0.147202 0.860387 11 2002 11 0.077913 0.845604 12 2002 12 0.394396 1.320455 13 2003 1 0.369062 1.358169 14 2003 2 0.054143 1.400373 15 2003 3 0.213904 0.985592 16 2003 4 0.132437 1.396273 17 2003 5 0.119801 2.886725 18 2003 6 0.106568 1.834031 19 2003 7 0.189788 1.698788 20 2003 8 0.187244 2.204399 21 2003 9 0.357202 2.643709 22 2003 10 0.156790 3.236849 23 2003 11 0.223395 3.860001 24 2003 12 0.248561 4.150468 25 2004 1 0.160151 4.934074 26 2004 2 0.490282 5.966804 27 2004 3 1.397600 12.991416 28 2004 4 0.758825 11.043725 29 2004 5 1.159358 9.826299 30 2004 6 0.542536 6.455750 31 2004 7 0.596292 9.717470 32 2004 8 0.849873 10.910973 33 2004 9 1.509876 20.425140 34 2004 10 2.698999 26.181648 35 2004 11 4.746463 41.595587 36 2004 12 4.476163 43.062163 37 2005 1 4.169102 42.687316 38 2005 2 3.361946 38.749382 39 2005 3 7.567360 51.428240 40 2005 4 9.512605 87.204960 41 2005 5 13.318327 90.570889 42 2005 6 6.191758 82.137981 43 2005 7 8.831113 100.230005 44 2005 8 5.864484 117.568409 45 2005 9 8.806108 156.629851 46 2005 10 10.286618 238.720597 47 2005 11 20.317337 282.320409 48 2005 12 34.105375 355.498817 49 2006 1 16.488371 331.422568 50 2006 2 19.090705 373.008854 51 2006 3 17.316852 459.107116 52 2006 4 16.254520 395.704831 53 2006 5 18.205109 511.785653 54 2006 6 13.053420 374.937615 55 2006 7 11.892284 303.389970 56 2006 8 14.059616 330.142228 57 2006 9 19.489344 506.451462 58 2006 10 23.076140 651.938649 59 2006 11 28.498922 703.127383 60 2006 12 15.829207 522.990732 61 2007 1 23.852155 635.076213 62 2007 2 28.587102 779.584900 63 2007 3 29.347109 880.605501 64 2007 4 27.202114 817.465592 65 2007 5 27.096942 848.425136 66 2007 6 15.840607 494.051245 67 2007 7 19.496036 394.084894 68 2007 8 14.889447 414.784902 69 2007 9 17.370748 671.761197 70 2007 10 24.814531 748.339506 71 2007 11 22.226349 626.129294 72 2007 12 14.996261 504.416459 73 2008 1 16.084718 696.383322 74 2008 2 13.980315 771.939198 75 2008 3 22.934456 763.856775 76 2008 4 23.672930 802.030691 77 2008 5 18.176154 751.843843 78 2008 6 20.582286 485.225110 79 2008 7 19.503239 380.738188 80 2008 8 23.071680 470.297873 81 2008 9 26.271215 766.216586 82 2008 10 24.024057 833.390652 83 2008 11 27.029343 647.087602 84 2008 12 16.861358 532.434540 85 2009 1 18.261037 663.527909 86 2009 2 23.135783 719.732351 87 2009 3 17.717117 577.416147 88 2009 4 10.459358 300.011900 89 2009 5 10.910196 302.408575 90 2009 6 11.401898 217.979580 91 2009 7 10.812957 178.307883 92 2009 8 10.254370 184.748383 93 2009 9 12.036462 270.813471 94 2009 10 11.018157 331.437680 95 2009 11 11.346309 293.060275 96 2009 12 10.055338 220.580848 97 2010 1 10.658743 293.207155 98 2010 2 12.836150 304.313778 99 2010 3 12.913615 346.488763 100 2010 4 11.537811 312.793582 101 2010 5 9.877441 277.463836 102 2010 6 9.138270 201.640865 103 2010 7 7.050153 153.493675 104 2010 8 8.868266 151.021926 105 2010 9 7.703931 234.894474 106 2010 10 8.815313 214.744755 107 2010 11 6.868494 186.537888 108 2010 12 7.817498 153.815932 109 2011 1 7.765005 173.002349 110 2011 2 8.079007 182.464324 111 2011 3 7.418945 160.227254 112 2011 4 8.883535 155.924546 113 2011 5 7.433619 155.547375 114 2011 6 7.161748 120.272709 115 2011 7 7.048998 110.943525 116 2011 8 6.874750 119.627500 117 2011 9 6.703717 143.835701 118 2011 10 7.582507 169.258820 119 2011 11 6.635208 164.122285 120 2011 12 6.296329 143.030151 121 2012 1 6.881303 158.431960 122 2012 2 6.768044 168.105131 123 2012 3 7.392149 171.223545 124 2012 4 7.736228 156.202519 125 2012 5 6.301344 173.848224 126 2012 6 6.819558 123.970909 127 2012 7 7.876956 115.279176 128 2012 8 7.924810 117.215783 129 2012 9 6.992721 148.853215 130 2012 10 9.745043 203.088100 131 2012 11 8.321949 165.472022 132 2012 12 6.580694 149.146924 133 2013 1 5.957408 157.779940 134 2013 2 6.538645 153.345886

Conclusions

• The number of anonymous article contributors per month has fallen since 2007, but seems to have stabilized at a bit over 100,000 unique IPs editing in the main namespace per month. Compare this cohort to the 10-12% of English Wikipedia signups that stop mid-edit to create an account (full data)
• The number of revisions to articles by anonymous editors has been just below one million per month. This composes roughly 1/3 of the total revisions to English Wikipedia.
• Since 2006, the average revisions per session has hovered at just below two edits a session for anons. There has been much more movement in the average for registered accounts, in part due to bot activity, but it has generally been 5-6 edits per session. In terms of anonymous editor acquisition, this suggests that providing calls to register will not reach most anonymous editors if we wait for a string of multiple edits (more than two).
• The average time spent per editing session follows a similar pattern as average revisions per session. For anonymous editors, the average has been below 15 minutes per edit session. For registered accounts, including bots, the average is double, at just below 30 minutes.

Pre-registration anonymous activity

Using the cu_changes table, we generated a dataset that contains a newcomers' pre-registration and first session activity. See the following diagram to get a sense of the kind of activity we're interested in:

In order to generate this, we gathered a sample of newly-registered users from the cu_changes table using this query:

SQL source code

SET @month_end = (SELECT max(rc_timestamp) FROM recentchanges); SET @month_start = DATE_FORMAT(@month_end - INTERVAL 30 DAY, "%Y%m%d%H%i%S"); SELECT user_id as id, user_name as name, user_registration as registration, user_editcount as editcount, cuc_ip as registration_ip FROM user INNER JOIN cu_changes ON cuc_user = user_id AND cuc_type = 3 AND cuc_actiontext LIKE "User account % was created" WHERE user_registration BETWEEN @month_start AND @month_end AND user_editcount > 0 AND user_id % 10 = 0

Using the registration_ip from this dataset, we scan the revision and archive looking for revisions with a user_text field that corresponds to the registration_ip. Using the edit session method with a 1 hour cutoff, we then gather the last session before registering (if any) and the first session since registering.

Results

In my sample, 6.9% of newcomers who ended up making at least one edit in their first week edited as an IP before registering their account. I'm generating some histograms now to get a sense for how much they before and after registering.

Histogram of session revisions pre-registrations

Histogram of session revisions pre-registration (with zeros filtered)

Histogram of session revisions post-registration

So how do users who edit before registering behave compared to users who don't? The following plots include data from both the pre-registration session and the post-registration session.

Data Table

pre_session revisions.geo_mean revisions.geo_se main_revisions.geo_mean 1: FALSE 1.723199 0.01047070 1.115439 2: TRUE 4.281658 0.03594024 3.452403 main_revisions.geo_se revert_prop.mean revert_prop.sd productive.k n 1: 0.009144279 0.2321521 0.4122159 2342 4564 2: 0.037101374 0.3916604 0.4287481 232 340 productive.prop productive.se revert_prop.se 1: 0.5131464 0.007398557 0.006101715 2: 0.6823529 0.025248611 0.023252133

What if we limit the analysis to just the post-registration session?

Data Table

pre_session revisions.geo_mean revisions.geo_se main_revisions.geo_mean 1: TRUE 2.178460 0.04449625 1.728482 2: FALSE 1.723199 0.01047070 1.115439 main_revisions.geo_se revert_prop.mean revert_prop.sd productive.k n 1: 0.038133895 0.3089849 0.4439494 195 340 2: 0.009144279 0.2321521 0.4122159 2342 4564 productive.prop productive.se revert_prop.se 1: 0.5735294 0.026821492 0.024076534 2: 0.5131464 0.007398557 0.006101715

Conclusions

• In our sample, 6.9% of newly-registered users edited anonymously within an hour before signing up.
• Users who edited anonymously right before signup are significantly more productive newcomers than the general population of editors